Japan's Rumble Fish files for bankruptcy

Japanese feature film and TV production company Rumble Fish Inc has filed for bankruptcy.

The news was reported today by Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd (TSR) credit reporting agency, the oldest such agency in Japan.

Rumble Fish was established in 2001 by producer Takenori Sento. The company was behind several of Shinji Aoyama's films including Lakeside Murder Case (co-produced with Fuji TV) and Eli Eli, Lema Sabachthani'

Other titles included Kazuo Kuroki's award-winning A Boy's Summer In 1945 and Kunitoshi Manda's The Kiss, which screened in competition at Tokyo Filmex last year. Rumble Fish also produced TV drama series Mike Hama, Private Detective which aired on NTV and employed writer-directors such as Isao Yukisada and Alex Cox.

Rumble Fish's lack of recent box office successes led to its withdrawal from production in December of last year. Financial debt mounted to $20.54m (Y2b) before a bankruptcy application was filed at a Tokyo district court on October 23 and accepted on the 29th.

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